Gov. Doug Ducey signs a law that bars women from buying healthcare plans through the federal marketplace that include abortion coverage and requires abortion providers to tell women they can reverse the effects of a drug-induced abortion.

Republican leaders in the Indiana General Assembly said Monday they are looking at options to clarify the state's controversial religious freedom law, though they don't believe the law would allow discrimination against gays and lesbians as opponents fear.

Police were working Monday to piece together the final days and hours of Robert "Spence" Jackson's life, as Missouri Republicans struggled to make sense of the second suicide of a prominent state party member in four weeks.

Standing in the basement dining room of a West Loop Greek restaurant Sunday afternoon, Mayor Rahm Emanuel accepted the endorsement of one of his chief antagonists -- former mayoral candidate and outgoing 2nd Ward Ald. Bob Fioretti.

The Supreme Court delivered a rare victory for minority voting rights Wednesday, finding that a 2012 Alabama redistricting plan appeared to violate federal law by shifting black voters into districts they already dominated to dilute their influence elsewhere.

The Supreme Court's conservative justices sharply questioned the high cost of a new Obama administration environmental regulation Wednesday, raising the prospect they may block the strict emissions standards for coal-fired power plants.

Chicago voters turned out in large numbers for the first two days of early voting ahead of the mayoral runoff, and suburban voters in the upcoming election will get newly designed stickers to show everybody they cast ballots, election officials announced.

A top Homeland Security Department official intervened to help projects backed by Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Sen. Harry Reid in a program aimed at attracting foreign investments in exchange for U.S. residency, the agency's internal watchdog said.

Warning of a liquidity crisis though 2015 and a situation "a lot more severe" than they had anticipated, Atlantic City's emergency management team has recommended $10 million in budget cuts, hundreds of layoffs and mediators appointed to negotiate with casinos and unions.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to Wisconsin's voter identification law, restoring the measure it had dramatically blocked ahead of last November's election but not in time for the April 7 ballot.

A long-awaited U.S. Justice Department report on police shootings in Philadelphia concluded Monday that there is "significant strife between the community and the department," and recommended wholesale changes in procedures and training.

Gov. Christie on Monday conditionally vetoed legislation that would have repealed the mandatory suspension of driver's licenses for first-time drunk drivers and instead required them to install devices that would be able to detect alcohol and stop cars from starting.

A federal judge on Friday struck down a Wisconsin law requiring doctors performing abortions to get hospital-admitting privileges, concluding that the measure was enacted to bar women from getting abortions.

Eleven days before federal agents searched state Auditor Troy Kelley's Tacoma home on March 16, they demanded records related to a state employee and longtime business partner of Kelley's whose name appears in an acrimonious lawsuit tied to Kelley's past business dealings.

A new state law effective today will allow hunters to use suppressors on guns; permit Ohioans to buy rifles, shotguns and ammunition from any state; and implement a more-rigorous background check for concealed-carry permits.

Tesla Motors can go back to selling its luxury electric cars directly to consumers in New Jersey as Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday signed legislation that allows the car maker to do so at up to four locatio

A Dane County judge declined to issue a temporary injunction Thursday that would have put Wisconsin's new right-to-work law on hold, finding that there wasn't adequate proof that unions would suffer irreparable harm without the injunction.

Acknowledging that California's water conservation efforts are falling short as the state descends into a fourth year of punishing drought, the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday imposed new mandatory water conservation rules that will affect millions of people -- from how homeowners water their lawns to how restaurants and hotels serve their guests.

Ads attacking U.S. military aid to Israel were posted on Muni buses in San Francisco this year without incident. But Seattle's public transit line rejected the ads after threats of violence, and on Wednesday a divided federal appeals court upheld its decision.

One of the most successful investments in the history of the Alaska Permanent Fund grew out of a chance conversation by two men waiting in line at Boston's Logan Airport for a flight to Seattle. A friend introduced the president of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to a portfolio manager for the Alaska Permanent Fund.

Failures in the hiring and supervision of San Diego police led to a series of misconduct cases, but the Police Department remains "progressive, sound and very effective," according to a federal review released Tuesday.

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld the city of Atlanta's plans to help finance the new $1.4 billion Falcons stadium, allowing the city to move forward with issuing $200 million in bonds toward the project.

Republicans on Capitol Hill are trying to protect the Washington, D.C., school voucher system, a GOP pet program championed by Speaker John A. Boehner and others with no impact on the rest of the country.

The state now expects that earnings from the Constitutional Budget Reserve in 2016 will be about $357 million. How long the account might last after that will depend on oil prices, state spending and tax policy.

People can type in their names at illinoistreasurer.gov to see what they may have lost. Starting Monday and ending Friday, anyone can click on the "Unclaimed Property Auction" link on the website to bid on the forgotten items.

A total of 16.4 million non-elderly adults have gained health insurance coverage since the Affordable Care Act became law five years ago this month – a “historic” reduction in the number of uninsured, the Department of Health and Human Services said Monday.

Rahm Emanuel and Jesus "Chuy" Garcia engaged in a contentious first debate Monday night, as the mayor accused his challenger of having no plans to deal with the city's financial problems while Garcia contended Emanuel served only "the rich and powerful."

Alaska is staring down a $3.5 billion deficit. Investment income from state savings has shown remarkable resiliency and has overtaken oil-production taxes in their value to the state. But the deficits will require the Legislature to spend down those savings accounts.

Fourteen states are joining in the push to salvage President Barack Obama's plan to grant legal protection to millions of people in the U.S. illegally _ even if it's only revived in their parts of the country.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon on Wednesday said he was willing to work with Republicans on a plan to expand the state's Medicaid program and even offered endorsements for conservative ideas that have drawn reproach from some health advocates.

Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner's opposition to raising the income tax and proposal to slash the state budget have Democratic lawmakers pushing more than a dozen other tax hikes as they try to bring in more money to save social service programs that are on the chopping block.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled that if the attorney general is in active opposition to the state, as Janet Mills is over health care policy, she loses her right to oversee the use of outside counsel. But it's a limited victory for Gov. Paul LePage

A lawyer for the state faced skeptical questioning from Illinois Supreme Court justices Wednesday as she defended a landmark pension reform law by arguing that benefit cuts to public workers were a response to a financial emergency tied to the Great Recession.

Legislators have approved removing from a bill a mandatory repeal of the state's Common Core standards -- following great opposition from state education officials, who said the legislation could disrupt West Virginia's entire K-12 system, cost more than $100 million and threaten federal funding.

The justices will consider a case crucial to Kathleen Kane's political future. After a seven-month investigation a grand jury concluded the attorney general had illegally leaked confidential information to embarrass a political foe and then lied about it to the jury.

The University of Oklahoma became a trending topic Sunday night on Twitter as videos allegedly showing members of one of the school's fraternities shouting a racist chant made their way across the Internet on YouTube and Instagram.

In a powerful illustration of the state's increasingly polarized politics, the Wisconsin Assembly passed so-called right-to-work legislation Friday on a strictly party-line vote, with two Republicans who had previously sided with unions now lining up against them.

Under Gov. Bruce Rauner's proposed cuts to the Department of Children and Family Services, thousands of older state wards for whom Illinois failed to find permanent placement before they aged out of foster care will be forced to fend for themselves.

New Jersey announced Thursday that it has settled an environmental damage claim against Exxon Mobil Corp. for $225 million, $25 million less than originally reported last week and far less than the $8.9 billion it had originally sought.

A record-breaking snowstorm slammed Kentucky on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, stranding thousands of motorists on interstates and prompting a statewide emergency declaration for the second time in 21/2 weeks.

It was reasonable for police Officer Darren Wilson to be afraid of Michael Brown in their encounter last summer, a Justice Department investigation concluded, and thus he cannot be prosecuted for fatally shooting the unarmed 18-year-old.

Supreme Court justices raised tough questions Monday about Arizona's use of an independent commission to draw legislative maps, in a case crucial for political operators and reformers in California and beyond.

Florida's congressional redistricting maps should be rejected because they are the product of a shadowy process infiltrated by Republican political operatives in violation of the law against partisan gerrymandering, lawyers argued before the Florida Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Gov. Tom Wolf today proposed an expansive plan for Pennsylvania state government that would shift the burden of education funding from the property tax toward the personal income tax while drawing on natural gas drilling to increase money for schools.

The 2015 session of the Legislature began Tuesday with two starkly different visions of Florida, as Republicans and Democrats used the opening day to mark their political territory and set contrasting priorities for the next two months.

Attorney General Eric Holder is expected to announce Wednesday that a Department of Justice investigation found patterns of racial bias in Ferguson's police and municipal court that violate the Constitution and federal law.

Alabama's highest court once again ordered judges not to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, defying a federal judge who struck down the state's ban on such unions as unconstitutional and ignoring the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to intervene.

Gov. Charlie Baker hopes to convince about 4,500 state workers to take early retirement. It'll cost the state $50 million, but his administration says the overall budget savings will more than make up for it.

The California Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that blanket statewide restrictions on where sex offenders may live violate the constitutional rights of parolees in San Diego County -- and potentially those in other counties.

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski's startling announcement Monday that she will not seek re-election in 2016 after more than four decades in elected office set off a political free-for-all as Maryland's most powerful politicians began to position themselves for the opportunity to run for a rare open seat.

Beverly L. Hall, the former Atlanta schools superintendent whose renown as an education reformer dissolved amid the ignominy of the nation's largest test-cheating scandal, died Monday of breast cancer. She was 68.

Gov. Christie's proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 assumes hundreds of millions of dollars in savings achieved through the expansion of Medicaid under President Obama's health-care law.

After bolting to national prominence on a record of bringing public employee unions to heel and taming runaway pension costs like those that have challenged state governments across the country, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie hit a very large hurdle recently.

Their numbers may pale in comparison to the peak protest rallies of 2011, but the passion was much the same for those who showed up Saturday to demonstrate their opposition to right-to-work legislation in Wisconsin.

The deployment of additional state police and Texas National Guard troops to the southern border last June has reduced illegal border crossings but cost more than $100 million and compromised the Department of Public Safety's ability to combat crimes elsewhere, according to an internal DPS assessment prepared for Gov. Greg Abbott and lawmakers.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday cut back on the power of state licensing boards to restrict competitors from offering low-cost services, a victory for consumers that could prove significant in industries as disparate as taxicabs, funerals and cosmetology.

The city that brought America government shutdowns and all-night filibusters is set to make pot legal on Thursday. But by the time the chaos over implementing the law is settled, most everyone in the District of Columbia might wish they were smoking some.

When President Barack Obama dropped into his hometown a few days before the city election to designate the historic Pullman district a national monument and heap praise on Rahm Emanuel, rivals decried the move as pure politics aimed at pumping up African-American support for the mayor.

Rahm Emanuel failed to win a second term Tuesday, suffering a national political embarrassment as little-known, lesser-funded challenger Jesus "Chuy" Garcia forced the mayor into the uncharted waters of an April runoff election.

Gov. Christie said today that a plan has been outlined to fix the state's chronically underfunded pension system, claiming an "unprecedented accord" with the state's largest teachers' union on the issue.

Gov. John Kasich on Tuesday used a small southwest Ohio town to demonstrate that a resilient state is back on its feet even as he challenged lawmakers to have the courage to "follow the plan" to continue the progress.

President Barack Obama rejected a bill Tuesday that would have approved construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, the first veto of a year that seems likely to feature repeated such moves as the Democratic president confronts the Republican-led Congress.

A New Jersey judge ruled Monday that Gov. Christie violated public-sector unions' contractual rights when he cut the state's payment to the pension system for public workers in June, and she ordered him to work with the Legislature to find a solution.

Chicago voters head to the polls Tuesday and will decide whether Mayor Rahm Emanuel collects a majority and quickly wins a second term or faces six more weeks of campaigning and a politically risky runoff election.

A bill requiring Tennessee's State Board of Education to drop Common Core education standards and develop new requirements has a math problem: It's projected to cost $4.14 million over a three-year period.

City officials announced the resignation and retirement of longtime Greensburg Fire Chief Scott Chasteen Friday, three days after criminal charges were filed against his wife, the former Greensburg Chief of Police.

After saying in his re-election bid that he wouldn't push so-called right-to-work legislation, Gov. Scott Walker committed Friday to signing it, acting after GOP leaders fast-tracked the proposal for a Senate vote next week.

A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Sheldon Silver, the powerful former leader of New York's state assembly, on charges that the legislator used his position and state funds to earn millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks for himself.

The University of Massachusetts, under pressure for a policy that barred Iranian nationals from seeking admission to certain graduate science courses, reversed itself on Wednesday and announced it will now accept the students.

Rep. Janice Hahn, D-Calif., will forgo a congressional re-election campaign next year and instead run for an open seat on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, where her populist father, the late Kenneth Hahn, served for four decades.

Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas should reorder its fiscal priorities to do more for education, roads and border security -- and hand out $4.5 billion in tax cuts -- even as it clamps down on spending for many programs.

There's an awkward political dance that's being performed nationwide as more Republican governors push for Medicaid expansion, despite tepid support from GOP state lawmakers and a continuing assault on the health care law by Republicans in Congress.

The Obama administration promised Tuesday to fight against opposition from both the courts and Congress to keep in place its expansive new programs to shield millions of immigrants from deportation, a key piece of the president's effort to shape his legacy in his final years in office.

Approximately 11.4 million people have signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act this year, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday, signaling a strong conclusion to the federal health law's second enrollment period.

In the wake of polarizing grand jury decisions in the police-related deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, New York's top judge wants judges to oversee the grand jury process in cases involving deadly and near-deadly incidents involving police and civilians.

A Travis County judge ruled Tuesday that the Texas ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional, but there was no rush to the altar after county officials _ scrambling to assess the effect of the judge's 3 p.m. order _ declined to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, at least for now.

A federal judge in south Texas issued an injunction Monday temporarily blocking a program President Obama announced in November that would defer deportation for about 5 million immigrants living in the United States illegally.

The derailments this week of two trains carrying crude oil have raised new questions about the adequacy of federal efforts to improve the safety of moving oil on tank cars from new North American wells to distant refineries.

Calling heroin a crisis that crosses state boundaries, Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh said Thursday that his office will join counterparts in the Northeast to share information and jointly prosecute drug traffickers.

The blizzard-battered commuter rail and subway will not be back to normal for "at least" another 30 days, the transit authority's embattled general manager admitted yesterday, forecasting a bleak month of long, expensive slogs for hundreds of thousands of commuters -- as another storm looms.

It is primarily at UC campuses where student leaders have voted to condemn Israeli actions and ask that billions of dollars in endowment funds be removed from companies with identifiable ties to the country's military.

The Southwest, including California, along with the Great Plains states, will endure long-lasting “megadroughts” in the second half of this century, worse by far than anything seen in the past 1,000 years, a team of climate experts said Thursday.

In a temporary victory for opponents of the Keystone XL pipeline, a Nebraska state judge sided with landowners seeking to stop Canadian energy firm TransCanada from taking land from dozens of properties in the northern half of the state.

Looking for a greater voice for his state — and an advantage for his own likely campaign — Sen. Rand Paul is asking the Republican Party of Kentucky to create a presidential caucus in 2016 that would go earlier than its May primary.

Moments after a federal judge ruled Thursday that gay marriage licenses must be issued, Robert Povilat and his husband-to-be, Milton Persinger, were proudly the first in line at the Mobile County Probate Court and started filling out their paperwork.

As Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker showed on Wednesday, the theory of evolution continues to trip up presidential aspirants. Over the past few election cycles, Democratic candidates often voiced their unabashed support of Darwin's scientific breakthrough, while Republicans offered up views ranging from outright denial to complex hedging to less than full-throated support.

MBTA General Manager Beverly Scott jetted off at taxpayer expense nearly every month during her two-plus-year tenure -- sometimes several times a month -- to conferences and meetings around the country, even as the troubled transit system was collapsing around her, a Herald review shows.

Gov. Tom Wolf toured an elementary school on Wednesday morning where students were writing about love for Valentine's Day. Then the new governor proposed to raise hundreds of millions of dollars for education with a 5 percent natural gas extraction tax that has not earned him much affection from the drilling industry.

The succession of mega-snowstorms that have buried Boston's streets have also obliterated the city's snow removal budget by more than $11 million and now wiped out two holidays for Boston school kids, City Hall announced yesterday.

In a move that shocked progressive advocates in Kansas, the state's Republican governor on Tuesday issued an executive order to remove discrimination protections for gay, lesbian and transgender state employees.

Moving beyond rhetoric, Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner on Monday issued an executive order that aims at absolving state workers who don't want to join a union from paying fees that support collective bargaining.

Gov. Wolf on Monday said he is dismantling his predecessor's alternative to Medicaid expansion and will move forward with the transition to traditional Medicaid insurance coverage for hundreds of thousands of low-income Pennsylvanians.

For legal commentators both for and against same-sex marriage -- and, apparently, for two of the Supreme Court's most conservative justices -- the court's refusal Monday to block same-sex marriages in Alabama foreshadowed a likely ruling within months to extend marriage rights to gays and lesbians nationwide.

Scott Walker changes would have struck pieces about state outreach, improving the human condition and pursuing truth in favor of more narrowly defining state campuses as agents of workforce development.

Gov. Bruce Rauner wants to give cities, towns and counties the authority to file for bankruptcy protection, a move that could give local governments a stronger foothold when negotiating with local police and fire officials over costly pension obligations.

Declaring it's "make or break time," Gov. Bruce Rauner used his first State of the State speech Wednesday to lay out a comprehensive conservative agenda aimed at repairing the state by helping businesses while putting the brakes on the power of organized labor.

Gov. Larry Hogan used his first State of the State address to follow through on a campaign promise, vowing Wednesday to push for tax relief for small businesses, motorists and some retirees, and to seek repeal of a controversial stormwater fee.

Cleveland police have begun wearing body cameras as part of a program to outfit 1,500 officers with the devices, the department announced Wednesday, nearly 10 weeks after a city police officer shot and killed Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old who was holding a toy gun.

Tennessee lawmakers ended the special legislative session called by Gov. Bill Haslam to consider his health insurance plan for the working poor Wednesday afternoon after a Senate committee killed the plan on a 4-7 vote.

Gov. Rick Scott wants to repeal a controversial hospital funding law under which counties that use local dollars to attract federal matching funds have to share the money with counties that don't raise local funds.

That is the message that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is delivering as he tours the state with his budget proposal, laying on the line what may be his proudest accomplishment of more than four years in office -- on-time passage of the state budget.

Arizona's treatment of foster children is so bad it actually puts kids at risk of greater harm, says a federal class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the directors of the Arizona Department of Child Safety and the Department of Health Services.

The Environmental Protection Agency is calling on the State Department to rethink its conclusion that construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would have minimal impact on climate change, saying the pipeline could significantly increase greenhouse gases.

Two leading Republican presidential hopefuls waded into the argument over childhood vaccinations Monday, with Sen. Rand Paul declaring that he had heard of "many tragic cases" of children suffering harm after receiving shots and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie saying parents should be given a choice on the issue.

Federal transportation officials have preliminarily agreed to help fund a $150 million downtown Sacramento streetcar project this year, as long as Sacramento can come up with local matching funds in the next few months, according to local officials with knowledge of the federal plans.

Gov. Mary Fallin, in her annual state of the state speech, urged lawmakers to improve the way the state budget is drawn up so that priority areas of education, public safety and health can be adequately funded.

Gov. Bruce Rauner faces an immediate test of his ability to work through the challenges of running cash-strapped Illinois now that the state has run out of money for a popular subsidized day care program.

Toledo Mayor D. Michael Collins remains heavily sedated and in critical condition at the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio, following his hospitalization for cardiac arrest, a city official said tonight.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel still has a ways to go to persuade city voters to give him a second term next month and allow him to avoid a politically risky runoff contest in April, according to a new Chicago Tribune poll.

From expanding health coverage to 70,000 low-income Montanans to a $400 million infrastructure plan Gov. Steve Bullock said will create 4,000 jobs, the first-term Democrat urged the GOP-controlled Legislature to overlook partisanship and adopt his wide-ranging agenda.

In Georgia, to prove that a death row inmate has an intellectual disability, the inmate's attorneys must show that he is disabled "beyond a reasonable doubt." This is the toughest standard of proof in the nation.

Assembly Democrats on Tuesday night settled on a plan to oust Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver next week, ending the political career of the longtime state government power broker whose rapid fall came just days after his arrest on federal corruption charges.

Gov. Mike Pence is starting a state-run taxpayer-funded news outlet that will make pre-written news stories available to Indiana media, as well as sometimes break news about his administration, according to documents obtained by The Indianapolis Star.

Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell will not have to report to a federal prison in two weeks, a federal appeals court said Monday, in a move that bodes well for McDonnell's appeal of his conviction on public corruption charges.

Criminal exonerations often make big news because of the agonizing years that those falsely convicted have spent behind bars -- sometimes under the specter of a death sentence -- but for those who keep track of them, it was a slew of low-level cases from Harris County that proved to be the most interesting among those recorded in 2014.

Embattled Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and his allies crafted a deal Sunday night to let the Manhattan Democrat "temporarily" cede responsibilities of running the chamber to five colleagues while he fights federal corruption charges against him.

President Barack Obama said Sunday that he planned to ask Congress to declare much of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, including its 1.5-million-acre coastal plain, an area on Alaska's North Slope suspected to contain vast reserves of oil and gas.

A Colorado law that allows immigrants in the country illegally to get driver's licenses was heralded as historic for its bipartisan support and an ingenious way to make driving safer because it required mandatory driving tests and insurance.

On his second day in office, Gov. Wolf rescinded more than two dozen 11th-hour appointments by his predecessor -- firing the state's new open records officer, canceling judicial nominations and effectively booting the former lieutenant governor from Temple University's board of trustees.

Supreme Court justices treated Texas' arguments harshly Wednesday that the Fair Housing Act should allow lawsuits for discrimination only when the plaintiffs can prove the policies that harm them were intentionally racist.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo today signaled his second term will be guided by the same issues as his first four years: changes to the public schools, holding to the left on social issues, controlling property taxes, expanding the economy, promoting big capital spending projects and making more strides to improve ethics in Albany.

In a clash between the First Amendment and judicial ethics code, the Supreme Court debated Tuesday whether to free elected judges to personally ask for campaign contributions from voters, including lawyers and others who might one day find themselves in their courtroom.

In an unprecedented moment of candor, Florida's newly installed prisons chief told a Senate committee that private contractors have provided inadequate medical care to Florida's inmates while crumbling infrastructure and years of staffing cuts have fostered "culture" problems in the massive agency.

More than 5,000 people in the rural Montana city of Glendive have been told not to use municipal water because elevated levels of cancer-causing benzene were found downstream from a weekend crude oil spill into the Yellowstone River.

In her annual State of the State address on Tuesday, Gov. Susana Martinez outlined her wish list for the 2015 legislative session, including higher pay for new teachers, a large highway spending package, more money to help lure businesses to the state and more funds for job-training programs.

New York's governor proposals would expand and codify into law policies he laid out in October after a New York City emergency-room doctor who had been treating Ebola was diagnosed with the virus after returning home.

In less than a day's time, Republican Party leaders who are gathered here heard two prospective presidential candidates' versions of an argument that will persist through next year's primaries: whether breaking the party's losing streak when it comes to the White House requires a candidate from outside of Washington or inside, and whether that face needs to be fresh or familiar.

Retailers on Thursday praised Gov. Rick Snyder for signing legislation they said would help put them on a level playing field by requiring large online retailers such as Amazon to collect and remit the state's 6% sales tax.

A year before Republican voters begin winnowing an expansive field of presidential candidates, well-funded potential contenders such as 2012 nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush are battling over donors and supporters as they edge toward a decision to run, overshadowing the also-rans even before they enter the race.

Gov. Sam Brownback endorsed remaking how the state funds public schools and putting the state's creditors at the front of the line for payments from state coffers in an ambitious State of the State speech Thursday night.

The graphic video altered the usual conversation about body cameras and police accountability by capturing _ up close _ a polite conversation that instantly turned into a deadly encounter in which the officer had little chance to react.

Mead additionally proposed more spending for University of Wyoming programs and construction projects; $25 million for cities, towns and counties; and $21 million to add passing lanes on some state highways.

In a 5,500-word State of the Commonwealth speech Wednesday night that was bullish on Virginia and absent partisan criticism, Gov. Terry McAuliffe urged the Republican-controlled General Assembly to work with him on bolstering the economy and creating jobs.

Gov. Rick Snyder picked Flint's emergency manager Tuesday to be the next leader of Detroit Public Schools, a move that sparked criticism from people who believe the district should be returned to local control.

Gov. John Kitzhaber stood before a full House chamber at the Oregon State Capitol on Monday morning as he was sworn in for a historic fourth term, following the inauguration of new and veteran legislators.

A mistrial was declared nearly 12 hours after the jury of nine women and three men started deliberating in the murder trial of a white former police chief charged in the killing of an unarmed black man.

In the wake of high-profile data breaches, President Obama proposed legislation to require companies to notify customers within 30 days of discovering that their personal information was exposed to hackers.

Rural hospitals have long struggled financially. But threats to their survival have intensified in recent years _ falling patient volumes, aging populations, and payment cuts by government programs and commercial insurers.

President Barack Obama rolled out a new plan Thursday to make two years of community college free, or nearly so, for millions of students across the country, a major investment that the White House cast as changing the face of higher education.

Congressional Republicans renewed their assault Thursday on the Affordable Care Act, as the House passed legislation to redefine the law's definition of full-time work, a key detail that would affect how employers must provide health benefits to workers.

The group opposed to Boston's bid to host the 2024 Summer Games is vowing to launch a ballot initiative or push for state legislation to prevent Bay State taxpayers from having to foot the bill for the Olympics.

Ohio will switch its lethal injection protocol, adding thiopental sodium, a drug used previously, and dropping the two-drug regimen of midazolam and hydromorphone that caused problems in the last execution a year ago.

The Obama administration is delaying rules aimed at curbing carbon emissions from power plants and will write a separate implementation plan for states that have threatened to refuse to submit their own.

Kirby Delauter, a Frederick County councilman, issued an apology Wednesday after he wrote on social media earlier this week threatening to sue The Frederick News-Post for publishing his name without permission, garnering national attention.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, giving his State of the State address that opened his second term Wednesday, said the state's traffic congestion is "unacceptable" and demands a bold new approach toward improving roads and railroad lines.

After hearing impassioned pleas for leniency, a federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Gov. Bob McDonnell to two years in prison for public corruption -- considerably less time than federal guidelines advised but not the community service sought by the defendant's legal team.

They weren't the Big Ones -- but a couple of the earthquakes that hit Tuesday were the biggest in a cluster that's been rocking North Texas since last fall. And by the end of the day, eight had been reported.

A child welfare judge in Miami has accused the state of denying necessary psychiatric treatment to abused and neglected children in its care, and has ordered Florida social service administrators to appear before him and explain why they have "no duty" to help sick foster kids.

Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday unveiled two major long-term initiatives for California that he intends to open during his historic fourth term in the governor's office: mapping out the fight against climate change beyond 2030 and tackling the enormous $59 billion problem of deferred highway and bridge maintenance.

California's bullet-train agency will officially start construction in Fresno this week on the first 29-mile segment of the system, a symbol of the significant progress the $68-billion project has made against persistent political and legal opposition.

Mario M. Cuomo, who forged extraordinary oratorical skills, a potent immigrant's story and an intellectual liberalism to win three terms as governor of New York, died Thursday at 82 in his Manhattan apartment.

Radical environmentalist or agriculture industry shill? The only thing consistent about the politician's role as California's water referee is that the fights have left bruises on the exacting and thick-skinned senator over the years.

In dozens of cases people convicted and later cleared by DNA or new evidence never received state compensation. Some never even file a claim because they can't afford a lawyer or find one willing to take the case.

Rain-catching is generally a seasonal hobby and not practical enough to eliminate dependency on snowmelt, reservoirs and groundwater but a growing number find rainwater systems are enough to weaken drought's fierce grip.

Sue Rahr, who steered Washington state's police academy away from traditional military training, was named Thursday to President Obama's task force on building trust between police and communities throughout the country.

The St. Louis area first faced outrage in the streets after the police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown. Now, discontent has moved to the courts -- and the issues have little to do with the police use of force.

Just 10 days after the city of Portland, Ore., sued ride-sharing giant Uber, saying it was illegally operating in the city, the San Francisco company has agreed to cease operations there until the spring.

Students are receiving more attention under a new state law and initiatives by Los Angeles Unified and other school districts. The law requires the state to define and identify a "long-term English learner," the first effort in the nation to do so.

The governor of Oklahoma has the authority to withhold the release of certain documents from the public because of executive privilege, but that power is not absolute, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

Uber, recently sued for allegedly making false claims about the safety of its ride-hailing service, Wednesday announced it had started a "global review" of its safety measures in November and says it plans to roll out new safety programs in 2015. But it's unclear what those programs will be.

A court-appointed panel will now be asked to monitor the use of force by sheriff's deputies in Los Angeles County jails, part of a far-reaching settlement to a lawsuit alleging brutal beatings of inmates.

Los Angeles will purchase 7,000 cameras for police officers to wear while on patrol, making the city a laboratory in the use of devices that bring the promise of more transparent policing but also concerns about civilian privacy.

With police videos increasingly becoming subject to public disclosure, Seattle police are anxious to develop a fast _ and inexpensive _ way to go through a growing mountain of material and redact sensitive images. They're getting help from local talent.

Gov. Bill Walker submitted a proposed $106 million capital budget to the Legislature on Monday, a spending plan designed to help the state weather a $3.5 billion deficit and one that's a fraction of what the state has spent on capital projects in recent years.

The powerful storm lashing Sacramento kept many people home last Thursday, but Rosario Aguilar was not among them. After eight years of living and driving unlawfully in California, the chance to get a legitimate license led him through sheets of rain to an information session held at a community services center tucked behind an Autozone on Fruitridge Road.

Tennesseans who make too much to qualify for Medicaid and too little to afford their own health insurance could be eligible for a new health-coverage plan proposed by Gov. Bill Haslam, if the state legislature approves it in early 2015.

Seven more states signed on to a lawsuit challenging President Obama's executive action halting the deportation of as many as 5 million undocumented immigrants, bringing the total to 24 states, Texas Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday.

California has received congressional funding to begin rolling out an earthquake early-warning system next year, capping nearly a decade of planning, setbacks and technological breakthroughs, officials said Sunday.

Opening the door for what could be a lucrative and controversial new industry on some Native American reservations, the Justice Department on Thursday will tell U.S. attorneys to not prevent tribes from growing or selling marijuana on the sovereign lands, even in states that ban the practice.

Spurred by the Ferguson shooting and other recent cases of deadly encounters involving police, Congress in its final hours of work for the year passed legislation requiring states to report deaths of people arrested or detained by police to the attorney general.

A Department of Justice study released Thursday found that student victims of sexual assault are far less likely to report instances of rape to police than nonstudents and that one in five victims fear reprisal if they report the attack.

The California Highway Patrol detective who aimed his firearm at a crowd of Bay Area protesters on Wednesday night was protecting another plainclothes officer who had been attacked only seconds earlier, and was trying to stop an advancing crowd of at least 30 people, a CHP commander said Thursday afternoon.

Amid the nationwide tumult over recent instances of police officers using deadly force against unarmed people, Bay Area cities like Berkeley and Oakland have been rived by impassioned protests that have at times turned violent.

Faced with a series of scandals that have roiled the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, the Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to create a civilian oversight system to provide greater accountability for the agency.

Los Angeles and San Francisco district attorneys filed a consumer protection lawsuit against Uber on Tuesday, alleging that the popular ride-hailing company misleads consumers about the service's safety, overcharges them and thumbs its nose at the law.

New York state's top law enforcement official asked Gov. Andrew Cuomo to grant him the power to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians after a pair of grand jury decisions in New York City and Ferguson, Mo., led to violence, protests and caused many to question the way police-involved slayings are reviewed.

Ride-sharing service Uber has expanded quickly by rallying public support for its service before city regulators could catch up. It became so popular in places such as San Francisco that politicians would have paid a big political price had they tried to slow it down.

State lawmakers in New Jersey investigating last year's scheme to snarl traffic leading to the George Washington Bridge say they've yet to turn up evidence that Gov. Chris Christie knew anything about it.

The U.S. Department of Justice civil rights division announced it found a pattern of "unreasonable and unnecessary use of force" in Cleveland police. Other cities are pursuing reforms on their own in response to criticism that police use force too often.

A more-than-yearlong effort by New Jersey lawmakers to determine who was ultimately responsible for the September 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge -- and why they happened -- has not yielded evidence that Gov. Christie knew of or was involved in the closures.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen G. Kane will not defend a new law that effectively stripped municipalities of the right to enact their own gun measures, raising the prospect that the controversial statute might not take hold.

Often criticized for perpetuating a city of haves and have-nots, Mayor Rahm Emanuel fired back Saturday with his own tale of two cities -- the old Chicago and new Chicago -- as he kicked off his campaign for a second term.

A white former police chief in a tiny South Carolina town has been indicted on murder charges in the 2011 shooting of an unarmed black man. The indictment Wednesday came the same day a Staten Island grand jury declined to criminally charge a white New York City police officer in the killing of Eric Garner.

The chants are angry, but simple: "I can't breathe!" "Hands up, don't shoot!" "Black lives matter!" They have echoed from the American heartland to the coasts in the wake of two recent grand jury decisions that cleared white policemen in the deaths of unarmed black men.

A white Phoenix police officer shot and killed an unarmed black suspect he believed was reaching for a gun on Tuesday night, adding to a series of fatal clashes between police and civilians that has led to unrest throughout the country.

A caravan of misery lined the sidewalk along Story Road. Evicted homeless people stood beside a seemingly endless row of shopping carts filled with their meager possessions as they watched city workers descend into "the Jungle" Thursday and begin dismantling the infamous encampment.

Cleveland police have routinely engaged in "unreasonable and unnecessary" force, including a half-hour police chase involving 100 officers that left two unarmed African-Americans dead when police mistook the car backfiring for gunshots and shot each of them more than 20 times, a Justice Department investigation revealed Thursday.

A New York grand jury Wednesday opted not to indict a white policeman in the killing of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man whose last words -- "I can't breathe" -- became a rallying cry for protesters who blamed his death on racial profiling and police abuse.

The New York Police Department on Wednesday announced the start of a pilot program this week to fit some officers with body cameras, an idea that has gained nationwide attention in the wake of the shooting of a Ferguson, Mo., man that sparked mass protests.

Texas and 16 other states sued the federal government and immigration agencies in U.S. District Court on Wednesday to try to derail President Obama's executive action deferring deportation for up to 5 million people, arguing it was unconstitutional and would worsen the humanitarian crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a sudden reversal, Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday said he will not call a special session to appropriate emergency funds for security measures in Ferguson and the St. Louis area after Missouri Republican leaders voiced their doubt over its necessity.

Because California voters reduced penalties for a number of drug and theft crimes by passing Prop. 47, Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer asked the City Council on Monday to let him hire more employees to file roughly 8,800 more cases expected annually -- crimes that used to be handled by the district attorney as felonies but now are misdemeanors.

The Obama administration proposed Wednesday to tighten the allowable limit of ozone in the air, a bid to curtail the rising problem of asthma and other respiratory ailments but one that faces strong opposition from industry groups and Republicans on Capitol Hill.

For the 2014-15 school year, the Kentucky Department of Education has approved waivers that allow Wolfe and Owsley and 11 other districts to use virtual or other non-traditional means of instruction when school is cancelled because of weather or another emergency. In many cases, students will participate in the snow day lessons online.

Gov. Deval Patrick is accepting no responsibility for the Democratic Party losing the State House Corner Office to Republican Charlie Baker after holding it for two terms, telling "Meet the Press" moderator Chuck Todd this morning, "the outcome of elections depend on the candidates, not the folks or the guy on the sidelines."

State judicial campaigns once were typically sedate affairs, little noticed outside of bar association dinners, but that is changing rapidly under a new wave of campaign spending driven by outside political groups and unlimited donations.

Legislators plan to meet the day after Thanksgiving for a final update from the Parnell administration on the proposed natural gas pipeline. But they won't be allowed to attend unless they sign a secrecy pledge.

As state regulators fret about how President Obama’s effort to combat climate change would affect the Texas power grid, a new study says the rules would be simpler to adopt than those regulators suggest – and that it would save the state billions of gallons of water annually.

The Obama administration overstated 2014 enrollment in health insurance plans purchased through the Affordable Care Act by more than 5 percent, officials acknowledged Thursday after the error was discovered by a congressional oversight committee.

Perry's legal team had argued that the two felony charges against the governor must be voided because special prosecutor Michael McCrum did not properly take an oath of office when he began working on the case, negating every act performed over the past 15 months _ including the indictment accusing Perry of abusing the powers of his office.

The Senate failed to vote for construction of the Keystone XL pipeline Tuesday, rebuffing a Democratic senator fighting for her political career and setting up a confrontation between President Barack Obama and a Republican-controlled Congress over the pipeline next year.

As promised, Gov. Steve Bullock on Monday unveiled his plan to make another run at asking the Legislature to accept millions in federal dollars to provide health coverage for 70,000 low-income Montanans.

Citing "the possibility of expanded unrest," Gov. Jay Nixon on Monday declared a state of emergency and prepared to send the Missouri National Guard to help maintain order in the St. Louis region when a grand jury decision is announced in the Michael Brown case.

There's a small but growing number of Christians joining health care sharing ministries, in which members agree to abide by Christian lifestyle principles and contribute to each other's medical expenses.

The sheer number of kids in California who have nowhere to call home and the failure of the state's leaders to address the growing crisis place it 48th among the 50 states for dealing with children's homelessness -- ranking it just above Mississippi and Alabama.

Gov. Bill Haslam is raising questions about plans by two state Senate Republicans to repeal Tennessee's controversial Common Core education standards and create a new panel to make recommendations on their replacement.

A state House member has introduced legislation that would enact a mandatory ultrasound and waiting period for women seeking abortions, the first formally proposed restriction on abortion after this month's passage of Amendment 1.

Four years ago, the Forest Service pledged to change the way the Tongass' abundant natural resources are managed, shifting the emphasis toward harvesting younger trees and supporting the growing tourism and fishery industries, which depend on the 17 million-acre expanse. A new study argues that hasn't happened.

A novel unity ticket featuring independent Bill Walker and Democrat Byron Mallott has defeated Republican Gov. Sean Parnell of Alaska in an election so excruciatingly close that its outcome was not known until 10 days after the polls closed.

The abrupt closure of Paseo this week amid news that the popular Seattle restaurant is being sued by former workers set sandwich-loving tongues wagging about wage theft, a problem local officials have been struggling to address for years.

Residents of Virginia's Nelson and Augusta counties, are refusing to allow Dominion Resources to come through their land and survey for the pipeline right of way, saying they'll do whatever they can to try to stop the $5 billion project.

The food service workers at the Capitol and Pentagon, joined by workers at the National Air and Space Museum and the National Zoo as well as Union Station, will strike for a day to protest wages and working conditions.

The nation's 18,000 police agencies are expected to submit specified categories of crime statistics every year to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program. Inclusion of justifiable homicides is optional.

Americans recently passed a milestone when federal officials reported that water use across the nation had reached its lowest level in more than 45 years: good news for the environment, great news in times of drought and a major victory for conservation.

A Fulton County Superior Court judge has upheld Mayor Kasim Reed's historic 2011 pension reform, siding with the city in a class-action lawsuit brought by employee unions, the mayor's office announced Tuesday.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Dan Sullivan's lead over Democratic Sen. Mark Begich shrank slightly, and Gov. Sean Parnell fell a bit further behind challenger Bill Walker in his bid for a second full term, as Alaska election officials Tuesday continued counting votes in what promises to be a long process.

Possession of 25 grams or less of marijuana no longer will be grounds for arrest in New York City under a new policy aimed at ending the lifelong stigma that can follow pot users, city officials announced Monday.

Critics say that the zones over Disneyland and Walt Disney World, which each cover a three-mile radius, would be useless against a true terrorist attack and that the restrictions mostly harm pilots who tow advertising banners.

A federal judge on Friday approved a plan to end Detroit's historic Chapter 9 bankruptcy, giving the Motor City an unprecedented shot at recovering from decades of economic despair and municipal mismanagement that left the city awash in debt and struggling to provide basic public services.

Alaska independent Bill Walker maintained a slim lead in the governor's race over incumbent Republican Sean Parnell on Wednesday, while Democratic Sen. Mark Begich trailed Republican challenger Dan Sullivan after a fierce campaign in which Begich sought to distance himself from President Obama.

Larry Hogan won his race for governor not just because Marylanders of both parties turned out to support his call for lower taxes, but because tens of thousands of Democrats in key jurisdictions stayed home.

Police and aviation officials denied a report Sunday that they ordered a no-fly zone over Ferguson, Mo., this summer in order to keep news helicopters away from the protests that formed after a police officer killed an unarmed man.

Under a settlement agreement announced Friday by the Justice Department, federal officials will appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Albuquerque Police Department as it implements sweeping reforms to change how its officers use force.

President Barack Obama came to Maine on Thursday to tell a loud crowd of 3,000 in Portland that Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Michaud is the kind of politician that runs for office for the right reasons.

Last week the tribe's high court struck a candidate from the ballot because he wasn't fluent in Navajo. Many say the requirement penalizes younger non-fluent Navajos for doing what their tribe encourages them to do: Get an education in the outside world.

The governor of California has occasionally frustrated union leaders with budget cuts and intransigence at the negotiating table. But he has also delivered on many of their biggest priorities, prompting his Republican opponent to paint him as a tool of labor.

More than 500 paid foot soldiers work in key election states for Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit group, funded in part by the Koch brothers, that advocates for limited government.
, conservative groups build up a ground game

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines on dealing with travelers from Ebola-stricken regions Monday, but its lack of firm rules left a patchwork of state-by-state strategies that include mandatory quarantines for some travelers.

The historic hearings on whether Detroit will exit the nation's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy came to a quick end Monday after closing arguments, which were abbreviated by settlements with major creditors.

Going into the fourth year of drought, farmers in Stratford, Calif., have pumped so much water that the water table below the town fell 100 feet in two years. Land in some spots in the Central Valley has dropped a foot a year.

Top Obama administration officials publicly warned Sunday that mandatory quarantines in the U.S. of doctors, nurses and other health care workers who have traveled to Africa to help Ebola patients risked worsening the epidemic.

As a security detail blocked off Marysville-Pilchuck High School, where police on Saturday were investigating the state's latest deadly school shooting, Washington voters were weighing the merits of two opposing gun measures on the November ballot.

The system five years ago began to aggressively recruit students from other parts of the country, who brought in about $400 million extra last year. But the effort stirred a backlash from California parents.

Child poverty in America is at its highest point in 20 years, putting millions of children at increased risk of injuries, infant mortality, and premature death, according to a policy analysis published this week in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

A system of no-show classes pushed by academic counselors for athletes and employed by coaches eager to keep players eligible at UNC-Chapel Hill produced an "inexcusable betrayal of our values," Chancellor Carol Folt said Wednesday.

A Common Pleas Court judge Monday granted the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers' request for a preliminary injunction to stop the School Reform Commission from imposing changes to teachers' health-care benefits.

President Barack Obama on Sunday night helped launch an all-out effort by Democrats to get voters to the polls for Gov. Pat Quinn, telling thousands gathered at a South Side rally to cast their ballots when early voting starts Monday.

Same-sex couples in Arizona, Wyoming and Alaska will all be free to obtain marriage licenses by next week after federal judges struck down bans in two of those states Friday and the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for a further stay in Alaska.

The end of Supt. John Deasy's dynamic and controversial 3 1/2 year reign over public schools in Los Angeles leaves school district leaders with the daunting task of mending broken relationships with employees, especially teachers, while stoking a continued upswing in student achievement.

The California Supreme Court on Wednesday cleared the way for further construction of the state's $68-billion bullet train when it declined to hear an appeal filed by Central Valley opponents of the controversial project.

The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday evening ordered Texas to stop enforcing part of the state's strict new abortion law until a legal challenge has been settled, at least temporarily allowing more than a dozen clinics to immediately reopen.

Republicans need a net gain of six seats to take control of the Senate, and a year ago, that math almost always included a victory in the Tar Heel State by defeating Sen. Kay Hagan. But less than a month before Election Day, the North Carolina race still eludes the GOP’s grasp — and has put a massive dent in the party’s wallet.

Karen Lewis, the controversial, combative and charismatic leader of the Chicago Teachers Union, will not run for mayor, significantly boosting Mayor Rahm Emanuel's chances to win re-election next year.

A Superior Court judge sided with the city of Charlotte in a ruling issued Monday that bars the Charlotte Airport Commission from running the city's airport without prior approval from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The country's largest union and professional association of registered nurses said Sunday that American hospitals are still not communicating policies to health-care workers regarding how to handle potential Ebola patients. National Nurses United also said that 85 percent of 1,900 nurses surveyed said their hospitals have not provided education about the virus in a setting that allows nurses to interact with or ask administrators questions.

The 30-second TV spot cited the accident that left her opponent, Atty. Gen. Greg Abbott, partially paralyzed and suggested he had profited from his misfortune while denying other victims the same remedy.

Those close to the victim said that Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, was not treated as well as three white American missionaries who contracted the deadly virus in West Africa

The Wisconsin and Texas cases were the two most closely watched tests of new voter rules this year. In both states, the Republican-led legislatures sought to tighten the rules for voting and to require all registered voters who did not have a driver's license to obtain a photo ID card at a state motor vehicles office.

Fewer than half of American states are working to protect themselves from climate change, despite more detailed warnings from scientists that communities are already being damaged, according to a new online clearinghouse of states' efforts compiled by the Georgetown Climate Center.

With Georgia polls set to open Monday for early voting, campaigns have less than a week to ramp up their "get out the vote" efforts. They're not starting cold: Leaders of the state's biggest political parties have made unprecedented use of analytics this year to pinpoint exactly which voters they need to win.

Less than 24 hours after news broke of a secret marriage, Oregon first lady Cylvia Hayes tearfully apologized to Oregonians and to her fiancé, Gov. John Kitzhaber, for accepting $5,000 to illegally marry an 18-year-old Ethiopian in need of a green card.

The Kansas secretary of state disputes disagrees the methodology of a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office report, which was requested by four Democratic and one independent U.S. Senate leaders.

Baltimore's mayor and police commissioner outlined Tuesday a sweeping plan to reduce police brutality, including the possibility of equipping officers with body cameras, while reiterating that they are committed to restoring public trust in the agency.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to extend a controversial partnership with federal immigration authorities designed to target potentially deportable immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes.

The boundaries of a congressional district drawn by Virginia's Republican-controlled Legislature were struck down by a federal court Tuesday in a case that involved accusations of racial gerrymandering for partisan advantage.

In most jails until recently, inmates booked on criminal charges and suspected of being in the country illegally were often held for an additional 48 hours at the behest of federal immigration officials. Now many are ending immigration holds.

MARTA union employees held up signs and shouted chants in the shadow of a Midtown high-rise building Monday to protest stalled negotiations and privatization efforts that could threaten hundreds of jobs.

Officers in Ferguson, Mo., violated the Constitution by requiring peaceful protesters to keep moving rather than stand still during demonstrations that followed the Aug. 9 police shooting of an unarmed man, a federal judge said Monday.

By activating its nuclear option and cancelling its teachers' contract, the Philadelphia School Reform Commission took an action Monday that could remake the city's schools and have national implications.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen declined Friday to defend Wisconsin elections officials against a new lawsuit connected to a stalled probe of Gov. Scott Walker and his conservative allies, asserting the officials are misreading a law at the heart of the investigation.

Florida had the worst voter lines in the country in 2012, and a lack of resources at some precincts contributed to those long waits to vote, studies from the U.S. General Accounting Office and a New York think tank revealed.

Hours after a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling brought clarity about which parts of a 2013 election law would apply to the coming election, Gov. Pat McCrory and legislative leaders added a layer of uncertainty.

In a further setback to Republican incumbent Pat Roberts, a Kansas District Court declined Wednesday to force Democrats to place a candidate on the ballot in the state's too-close-to-call U.S. Senate race.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills Tuesday written in response to gun tragedies that shook up Northern California: the Isla Vista shooting rampage by a UC Santa Barbara student and the Sonoma County sheriff's deputy shooting of a boy with a toy gun.

The Supreme Court ordered a halt Monday to early voting in Ohio that was scheduled to begin this week, clearing the way for the state to close polls on the Sunday before Election Day, when African American turnout has been heaviest.

Lieutenant governor candidates Dan Patrick and Leticia Van de Putte clashed on education Monday in their only scheduled debate, with Patrick defending lawmakers' deep cuts to schools three years ago while Van de Putte said his tightfisted ways have hurt Texas students.

Local police continue to search today for a suspect who wounded a Ferguson police officer Saturday night, but now authorities say the incident involved only one person and that it appears no burglary took place.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Sunday that requires colleges and universities in the state to adopt anti-sexual-assault policies that radically rewrite what constitutes consent, a move that some critics have called an unfair shift of the burden of proof to the accused.

Despite the fact that the U.S. Senate has very little control over education, the issue has taken a leading role in the race between incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan, and her GOP opponent, state Speaker Thom Tillis.

The San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys have sent letters to ride-share companies Uber, Lyft and Sidecar claiming they are operating illegally and warning them that legal action could follow if they don't make major changes.

Wearing safety goggles and wielding a white mallet aimed at a wind-up toy train, GOP gubernatorial candidate Neel Kashkari on Wednesday made his latest attempt to move the needle in a contest stacked highly in favor of his Democratic rival, Gov. Jerry Brown.

Marijuana is legal in Washington, but residents are still subject to $27 fines for smoking or possessing marijuana in public. A review of summonses this year showed more than 80% of them issued in 2014 came from one police officer.

The number of health insurance companies offering plans in the marketplaces this fall will increase by 25 percent, giving consumers more choices for coverage, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell announced Tuesday.

A federal judge on Tuesday lambasted what he called a "corrupt culture" within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as he sentenced six current and former members of the department to prison for obstructing a federal investigation into abuse and corruption at the county jails.

Mark Dayton says the state will begin conducting random checks to see if counties are wrongly rejecting abuse reports and will set up a team of child protection specialists to respond rapidly to social workers struggling with difficult cases.

Google is breaking ties with the American Legislative Exchange Council, a prominent network of conservative state legislators that, among other projects, works to roll back laws that promote solar and wind power, the company's chairman said Monday.

Behind in the polls, Gov. Corbett went on offense Monday night in the first televised debate of the Pennsylvania governor's race, defending himself as a steady steward of taxpayers' money while characterizing Democrat Tom Wolf as an untested entity with vague promises.

To no one's surprise, the politically charged partisan divide over Medicaid expansion in Virginia remains intact after a special General Assembly session called to debate the issue one last time in 2014.

Saying the Missouri Lottery "has some work to do," Gov. Jay Nixon on Thursday replaced four of the five commissioners who oversee the lottery and urged his new appointees to take steps to maximize the money that goes to public education.

Enrollment in health plans offered through the Affordable Care Act dipped slightly through this year, falling from about 8 million this spring to 7.3 million in mid-August, the Obama administration announced Thursday.

U.S. District Court Judge S. Arthur Spiegel ruled on Tuesday that registered Ohio voters who are jailed the weekend before an election will be allowed to cast an absentee ballot. Spiegel decided in a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Justice & Policy Center that he saw "no value in taking away this fundamental right, even for a short period of time."

At a heated Congressional hearing Wednesday, two doctors said patient deaths can be linked to delays in care at VA medical centers, a starkly different view than the one painted by an increasingly controversial inspector general's report.

A rule that would have prohibited doctors from prescribing abortion pills by videoconferencing has been blocked by the Iowa Supreme Court in a last-minute decision hailed as a victory by pro-abortion rights advocates.

A week before world leaders will discuss how to slow the increase of dangerous gases in the atmosphere, the Obama administration announced that it has reached agreements with a range of major companies to voluntarily phase out a class of chemicals, used in refrigerators and air conditioners, and seen as contributors to global warming.

Los Angeles Unified school police officials said Tuesday that the department will relinquish some of the military weaponry it acquired through a federal program that furnishes local law enforcement with surplus equipment. The move comes as education and civil rights groups have called on the U.S. Department of Defense to halt the practice for schools.

In August, State Police arrested a man in Roane County after they said they found improvised explosives, AK-47 style rifles and about 30 live chickens in his wrecked SUV at 3:30 a.m. The man, Seth Grim, 21, allegedly told police that he was a "sovereign citizen," a group that rejects taxes and local, state and federal laws.

As many as half a million people who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act this year may lose coverage or need to pay more because they haven't submitted proper documentation, the Obama administration warned Monday.

School districts from California to Georgia and Maryland have had to add bilingual programs and social services to help new immigrants. Nowhere is the impact of the recent surge of immigration felt more strongly than in Texas.

Democratic state Sen. Roderick D. Wright, convicted earlier this year on felony perjury and voting fraud charges, was sentenced Friday to 90 days in county jail and barred for life from holding public office.

In a ruling that could have reverberations around the country, a federal judge on Thursday struck down an Ohio law that bars individuals from knowingly making false statements about political candidates.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday told a group of Clark County supporters the state has balanced its budget and added jobs during his first term, but more change is needed, including eventually eliminating Ohio's income tax.

A class-action lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court seeks to require the state to cover the cost of applied behavior analysis, or ABA, treatment for him and other children with autism who are on Medicaid.

The revelation came when the Free Press published an article and video showing how Detroit firefighters get emergency alerts: A pop can filled with coins or screws gets knocked over by a piece of paper that rolls through a fax machine. The rattle signals an emergency.

The states are national leaders when it comes to curbing worker misclassification, when business miscategorize employees as independent contractors, thereby dodging laws that require the payment of state and federal taxes.

The Port of Seattle has won a $20 million grant to rehab and expand one of its busiest container terminals downtown, one of two projects from Washington that successfully competed for a piece of $600 million in federal grants set aside for critical transportation needs around the nation.

Protesters intent on shutting down Interstate 70 Wednesday afternoon as part of their calls for justice in the Michael Brown shooting case were met by a large contingent of law enforcement intent on stopping them.

A legal way to increase pensions by boosting the final pay of retiring state and local government workers could drive up public employee pension costs in California by as much as $796 million over the next 20 years, the state controller said Tuesday.

Emotions in Ferguson, Mo., roiled by unrest last month after a white police officer fatally shot an 18-year-old black man, were still raw Tuesday night as the City Council heard from often angry residents demanding justice for Michael Brown and better treatment of African Americans in the city.

The City of Detroit and creditor Syncora have reached an agreement, in principle, that would end the bond insurer's vigorous opposition to the city's restructuring and turn the company into an ally, reflecting a remarkable breakthrough in the city's historic bankruptcy case.

Nebraska's lieutenant governor announced his resignation Tuesday morning, a day after a state judge ordered him not to contact his sister after she accused him of having anger problems and threatening her.

The Ferguson City Council announced plans Monday to make changes designed to reduce court fine revenue, reform court procedures and start a Citizen Review Board that will help keep an eye on and guide the police department.

The largest government infusion of cash into the U.S. economy in generations - the 2009 stimulus - was riddled with a massive labor scheme that harmed workers and cheated unsuspecting American taxpayers.

With President Obama deciding not to take executive action on immigration until after the November election, some Democrats took to the Sunday talk shows to voice their frustration with him and with Congress' continued inaction.

In a historic verdict Thursday, a federal jury convicted former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, on felony corruption charges. It's the first time a Virginia governor has been found guilty of crimes in office.

The nation took another big stride Thursday toward a historic legal showdown over gay marriage, as a federal appeals court in Chicago unanimously struck down bans on same-sex unions in Wisconsin and Indiana.

As Gov. Jerry Brown and Neel Kashkari prepare for their first -- and likely only -- debate Thursday, Kashkari has a problem that goes beyond anything that might happen on stage: Many Californians still don't know who he is.

A federal judge in Louisiana threw a roadblock on what advocates thought would be an expressway toward establishing gay marriage as a fundamental national right, ruling that the state's ban on such unions was constitutional.

The Justice Department is preparing to announce as early as Thursday that it will expand its investigation of the police shooting death of Michael Brown, 18, into a broader civil rights probe of the practices of the Ferguson Police Department.

Capping one of the fiercest battles for economic bragging rights in years, Tesla Motors is expected to announce Thursday that it has chosen Nevada as the site for its first "gigafactory" for battery production.

In a move that will shake up the Alaska governor's race, the Democrat running for the Last Frontier's highest office is poised to suspend his own campaign and join forces with the independent candidate in a unity ticket.

Louisiana's new antiabortion law can take effect Monday as scheduled, but provisions requiring doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals cannot be enforced against clinics and doctors who filed suit, a federal judge ruled Sunday night.